Look up, Angelenos! You can spot ‘the best meteor shower of the year’ beginning tomorrow

A spectacular celestial event is about to take place in the skies above the Golden State.

Southern California residents will catch “the best meteor shower” of the year starting Friday, July 17.

The Perseids meteor shower will soon streak across our sky with its fireballs lasting until August 23, with the peak in mid-August, according to NASA. 

Officials said the fireballs provide large explosions of light and color that last longer than the average meteor streak, which is due to them “forming from larger particles of cometary material.”

“With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth’s atmosphere,” NASA said.

“They occur with warm summer nighttime weather allowing sky watchers to comfortably view them,” it added, labeling them “best meteor shower of the year.”

If you live in the Los Angeles area you don’t need any high powered telescopes or binoculars and only need the dark sky above to catch all the colorful streaks of “shooting stars” in the sky, with about “50 to 100 meteors seen per hour.”

The Perseids are formed from pieces of space debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle which mixes with our atmosphere, NASA said. The comet takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once.

The best time to catch this amazing display of light and color is in the predawn hours, though it is possible to catch these views as early as 10 p.m. under clear skies, officials noted.

While you don’t need any type of special exploratory device to see the radiant shower, the best place in the city to catch this display it is at the Griffith Observatory. 

If you really want a treat, take a drive out of the pollution of the city lights to places like Angeles National Forest, Malibu Creek State Park, Mount Wilson, or Joshua Tree National Park, where the shower under the night sky will be even better, as Secret Los Angeles noted.

Once you get there, allow your eyes to settle into the darkness for about 30 minutes before you look up and watch the wonderful light show that our ancestors have been enjoying for reportedly thousands of years.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters